#but like whenever i see art of her I'm like

[couch-house]

If you've been following me for a while you already know I'm going to tell you to vote for @themetalvirus's Egghog AU in @sonic-au-collision. You know I love drawing those funny little guys. But I think it might be a good idea to actually get into why I find them so compelling! I think any good AU is in conversation with canon,and egghogs is a certified Yapper.

Let's start with our hero, Amy!

Our canon Amy can be characterized by her deep compassion and optimism. As well as how Sonic has inspired her hero crush and motivated her to go out and put that compassion to work herself!* Egghog Amy has that same compassion, but what if she had no choice in being the hero? She had no one to look up to and inspire her, just the crushing weight of necessity. An Amy put in canon Sonic's position, who relies on unceasing and perhaps inappropriate optimism, but is still worn down by the weight of the world. I like this take on her, an exploration of where "toxic positivity" can get you.

*I think the classic IDW Amy characterization is a good example of this. As well as Fleetway Amys origin story heehee

Despite the stress of it all, she still has the optimism to see the best in people and believe they can change for the better. Like, for example, her crush: Egghog Sonic.

Just like canon Sonic, Eggy is a headstrong hedgehog defined by his own moral compass and his need to have a pretty good time. But while canon Sonic is defined by his love of freedom, independence, and by his "coolness," Egghog Sonic has been raised in Eggman's trap of control. He's just as headstrong, but in the opposite direction. His adoptive family is just as important to him as canon Sonic's friends, but in opposition to the good of the world. Where canon Sonic is personally reckless to protect others, Eggy is careless with the safety of others in service to his and his family's needs. Canon Sonic is capricious and relaxed, even in the face of danger, while Eggy is restrained, emotionally stunted, and stressed at all times.

Personally, I think that Egghog Sonic's fighting style being based in ballet--associated with control, restraint, and exclusivity by wealth--opposed to canon Sonic's fighting evoking breakdancing--a sport associated with creativity, play, and its origins as an urban art--does a great job on its own of juxtaposing the two Sonics.

But as I mentioned, even with his morals and freedom in opposition to canon, Egghog Sonic still has that essential connection to the people he cares about: his close-knit (read: highly controlled) family.

Egghog Sonic's younger brother Silver has all of canon Silver's accidental dickishness and ruthlessness, but without the humbling experience of surviving in a ruined future to keep him in check. Born and raised with a silver (ha) spoon in his mouth, Eggy Silver would be killed instantly by canon Silver's upbringing. All his worst qualities have been encouraged (as opposed to canon silver facing consequences for and learning from his flaws) and Eggy Silver is a huge fucking bitch. You know when Silver mugged Tails in Rivals? Okay now imagine if he was raised to do that as a child soldier. Now imagine he gets anything he wants whenever he asks. Thats Egghog Silver. When Silver defects from the Eggpire, we see that appreciation for the world and its history grow back where it belongs. It gives a better appreciation to what motivates canon Silver's view of the world, and recreates it in a new way.

Also the irony of Mr. I Must Fight For The Future's fucked up AU version of himself being part of the cause of the ruined future.... its delicious.

Finally, the oldest brother (by like a couple months...). We all know canon Shadow's had a rough time of it RE: mind control, manipulation, having a whole game where he is asked to be everyones gofer... This is Egghog Shadow's life for a full 15 years. Gerald doesn't finish cooking Egghog, and Eggman is the one to dump him out of the tube and raise him to be the perfect chaos-weilding soldier. He makes liberal use of his ability to physically manipulate Shadow's artificial mind to keep him in line as an endlessly obedient servant. Of course, any Shadow meaningfully based in canon won't stay that way. Just as his canon counterpart breaks free from the demands of those around him to forge his own path, so does Eggy Shadow. Even in the fucking miseries, even without a Maria, Shadow is still will make the choice to walk his own path.

Well, not just his own path. Because while Shadow (esp post-06 Shadow) can be uncompromisingly independent at times, he is still often defined by his friendships. Specifically, his relationship to Rouge is given focus in this AU, being his one reprieve from the empire and ultimately his way out. Canon Shadow had Rouge and Omega by his side during some of his darkest moments and arguably that made all the difference to his arc. Their presence (yes, Omega is here too) during Eggy Shadow's suffering is all the more essential and highlights their roles in canon.

But of course, with greater miseries comes greater struggle to heal. Canon Shadow's neat freak nature gets reinterpreted as a trauma response--maladaptive perfectionism and OCD. (tbc, in the same way fan works often recognize that canon Shadow likely lives with PTSD as a result of his experiences, Egghog Shadow's OCD is presented as an appropriate consequence of the stressful environment he's been raised in.) I like this as an exploration of how Shadow handles stress and trauma, how it might change in different circumstances.

All that to say, Egghog AU is just done in such a compelling way that really grabs me and facilitates Rambling about The Parallels and such. And that I think makes for a GREAT AU. The exploration of Sonic's strong personal morals and headstrong...ness, the benefits and flaws of Amy's intense optimism and compassion, Silver's ruthlessness and meaner side, and Shadow's tendency to introspection and overcorrection... Again I say, a good AU is one that is in conversation with canon, and Egghogs is constantly talking about the fascinating conflicts created by these characters. And thats why you should vote #Egghogs4Eggver

[notomys-mordax-blog]

I've let my thoughts marinate for a while after finishing up Dragon Age Veilguard. In the spirit of contributing to a fandom that I love, I'm going to be shouting my general thoughts about the game into the void instead of having the decency to keep them in my head.

TLDR: it's complicated. Better than expected, but still pretty flawed.

Things I liked:

I was initially pretty meh on the toonier direction they took the character art in. It felt like ... knock-off overwatch. However the style really grew on me as I played the game and I found that the character models were really expressive in a fun way.

The environment design was really colorful and fun! One of my biggest critiques of DA:O was how ... brown and ugly the game was. While I think it was probably the right artistic choice to remove the hilariously over the top post-combat blood splatter effects, I do miss it. This game had some really interesting visual design.

Watching Solas's worst memories like episodes of Real Housewives with the crew.

The combat was also more fun than expected. I definitely prefer tactical combat in games, and don't generally enjoy action games, but I had fun with it and felt like it struck (for me) the right balance between difficulty and frustration.

There were some really interesting and subtle things in some of the writing (especially when combined with character expressions). There were little characterization details that I thought were really well done (for example: the fact that Lucanis was obviously the most rattled at weisshaupt) . The prison of regret was a high point in the series.

I really liked a lot of the big lore reveals.

It was fun seeing some of the environments that we've only heard about. in the previous games.

I actually really enjoyed how direct Taash's gender adventure was. There was no room for "well actually, they aren't non-binary, they are this unique fantasy term that isn't actually queer". I also enjoyed how it acted as a vehicle for the other gnc characters in the story to have their moments. Bonus points for also having non-binary characters doing something other than gender with their lives.

The game was functional, complete and ran well on launch! I had to put down BG3 for like two months because it was unplayably buggy when I picked it up, and the ending of DA:I really doesn't have any impact without Tresspasser, which came out much later.

Things I didn't like:

The writing was very uneven and pretty awkward at times. The number of times the phrases "Gods, Rituals and Artifacts" were uttered by different characters, often without any further explanation, really made me itchy. It was really weird to me why the characters kept calling the Evanuris Gods (especially with a non-elven Rook). I also wanted to grab Neve by the shoulders and shake her whenever she talked about the venatori doing a ritual. WHAT KIND OF RITUAL? GIVE ME SOME JUICY LORE TIDBITS BEFORE I CHEW MY ARM OFF.

The venatori and the antaam were straight out of Saturday cartoon villains. Their motivation also made absolutely no sense from a world-building point of view (maybe if they leaned more into the fact that the elven gods were also the Tevinter old gods ...?). This whole conflict really felt ... underbaked.

I can respect the game design choice to want the player to be completely heroic, and frankly -- given that most people don't pick the "evil" path, it makes sense to devote more effort in creating permutations of the good path ... but I do feel like they really could have pushed the themes of "as a leader, sometimes you won't have any good choices" a little bit harder (idk -- I think it would have been interesting if instead of the blight dragon, you would have to chose whether or not you'd ally yourself with the venatori and leave Treviso to the Antaam or vice versa).

DA:I does a good job convincing me that Inky is creating complicated alliances between different powerful factions. DA:V falls flat in this regard. I think they were aiming for the different factions to feel small and scrappy, but with the exception of the Shadow Dragons (and maybe the Lords) ... the Wardens, the Mourn Watch, and the Crows are major political forces ... which feel weirdly small.

All of the companions were pretty ... unobjectionable and straightforward heroes. As someone who personally loved the dynamic between Anders and Fenris in DA:2, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of inter-party conflict. Serious cultural conflicts between characters such as Emmrich and Tassh were resolved .... without much fuss. I didn't feel like any of the conversations about the fact that Lucanis kills people for money had any teeth.

In that vein, I felt like the worldbuilding was also pretty defanged. Topics of racism and religious oppression were very prominent in earlier games. I think it's pretty obvious why having an oppressed racial minorities gods being the main villain would be a bad look. Heck, I can also understand and respect these themes being less fun for the writers to explore in the hellhole that is 2025, but I think this could have been handled in a more elegant way. Instead it felt weird and hand-wavy.

The crows really must've hired a PR team after that whole incident with Zev. My headcanons really had to do some heavy lifting.

We finally get to see Minrathous, the biggest magical city in Thedas ... and the area we explore is just a generic fantasy fishing town? We see the cool floating canons in the intro sequence! Give us more of those.

The game was inconsistent about incorporating bits of Rook's origins into the dialog. For example, the seer in Rivain explaining their relationship with spirits felt really weird with a Lord of Fortune Rook. Another (minor) example, Mourn Watch Rook eats the fish, it would have been neat to have the option for him to be vegetarian (given that this is common in Nevarra).

Romance is my favorite part of dragon age, and I felt like all of the romances were very ... paint by numbers.

Dreadwolf would have been a much better name.

Some of the comments from people involved in the game (specifically the AMA -- but also the whole "this is the most romantic dragon age game ever") had a weird vibe.

Where are Solas's agents? What happened to them?!

We were not betrayed by any of our apostate companions, 0/10 this is an important aspect of any dragon age game.

Rook felt like the boss that nobody wanted to invite to do anything fun. The companions seemed like they had a lot of dynamic with each other, but they never really directly spoke with Rook. It was weird how you couldn't talk to them. You had to awkwardly listen in on their conversations. Pretty much all of the companions have more chemistry with each other than Rook.

I have more thoughts about specific characters and plot points that I may share later, but I needed to expunge this from my mind like an exorcism.

[dubia-015]

GAH ITS SO GOOD ALREADY SAILPLANE MANTIS AAAAAAA

also an invitation? to talk about MY bug ocs? with the cool art person that I follow? someone pinch me

Allow me to take this prime opportunity to yap about my oc's hehehe Technically the first two aren't transformers but they are mech pilots soooooooo close enough right?

BEHOLD: Swift, my pink thing that I love

As you can see by the name and theme of this blog, Swift is quite near and dear to my heart. 💖

They are the pilot of a Dubia class mech, which means most of their job is excavating survivors out of buildings and getting them to safety after an incident (they live on a space colony that regularly gets attacked by giant space monsters called bone worms, its a whole thing).

Their design is inspired by two different species of cockroach: the Dubia Roach and the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach! The little horn nubs on Swift's helmet and mech come from the Madagascar hissing roach, and name and shape comes from the dubia roach.

I've always had a soft spot for these two roaches (fun fact! I've held the hissing cockroach before, they are very sticky lolol) and its great to have them integrated into a design like this.

Alright up next we have: Megan, the butterfly mech pilot!

Butterfly mechs are the satellites of space colonies mech rosters. They float around and collect copious amounts of information about anything in their range, from valuable minerals, to hoards of bone worms. The tech that allows them to hover around weightlessly makes them pretty flimsy in a fight, so they definitely take a supporting role in battles.

Butterfly mech pilots are highly intelligent and meticulous, and Megan is no exception. She was Swift's best friend, that was until she went out on an observation shift and got attacked by a bone worm. The mech was never found, but its pretty clear what happened, at least to Swift (I miss my wife tails moment).

Obviously her design is inspired by butterflies, though not a specific one. Her initial design had swallow tail butterfly wings, but they just made the silhouette to hard to read so I just went with default butterfly design instead. She is actually an old design that i recycled for this little story of mine. All the mechs in this world are bug themed, and i'm very excited to share more designs in the future (wait till you see the scorpion mech hehehe)!

Last but certainly not least, my Transformers Earthspark oc, Lemondrop!!

He is a food truck that serves humans, cybertronians, and terrans free beverages, and is exceptionally passionate about proper hydration. He wants to know everything and anything that can assist him in his quest to adequately hydrate the public, from cybertronian medical literature to human cookbooks.

Lemondrop is what happens whenever a strawberry lemonaid slushie and a rosy maple moth fuse into a robot! I love the pink and yellow of the rosy maple so so so so so much, and Lemondrop also gets the wedges on his helm from the moth's antennae.

To truly demonstrate the depths of my obsession with the lemonaid robot man, i have begun construction of a plushie! Still a WIP but i figured i should share anyway (i am running out of cream help).

Alright that's all the bug robots I have for now, this was a long post so thank you for reading!

And remember:

*skitters away*

everybody loves my Bug Swag

[mysicklove]

shinobu from demon slayer is literally gorgeous n nobody talks about it

[alloru]

it's mujika from the promised neverland!!

I don't know why her in particular, but she's always been my favourite character in the manga (there is no second season of the anime, don't worry about it).

her character design immediately captivated me and I found her role in the story to be incredibly fascinating. I don't want to spoil anything here, just because I think you should read the source material for yourself!

while my previous little guys™ were all protagonists, it's actually way more likely for me to get attached to side characters in stories. the suffering I've endured for my rarepairs is endless TvT

have a wicked next 24 hours and stay safe!

[edda-grenade]

tadpolycule agenda shenanigans with the tav version of saar, apotheosis in the making, and two bits of an absurd AU

[yagurlhere]

WARNING:SPOILERS!

"NOOOO! LIGHTBULB!!!!! 😭"

"LIGHTBULB ANGST!!!!! 😭"

"LIGHTBRUSH ANGST!!!!!! 😭"

"THIS HURTS SO MUCH!!!! 😭"

"I'M CRYING!!!!!! 😭"

"PAINTBRUSH CRYING!!!!! 😭"

"MY HEART!!!!! 😭"

Me: FINALLY.

[vacantgodling]

not to be weird and sappy on main, but frfr i'm so glad i have found a community of people who think my work is good

[ukulelegodparent]

One thing about Dresden is that pedestrians will stop at a red light. In Leipzig you se a red light and you go 'fuck if I care, there's no cars coming' and cross the road. I have seen large groups of people crossing at a red light at the main train station. But not in Dresden. Here they all wait nicely.

[gayafsowhat]

Anyone want to be mewtuals... We could commit word crimes together (share and beta our fanfics)...

[aberooski]

I love my gx winx au and I love that it's just bits and pieces of me being like oh that's fun and not having any semblance of lore or plot. It's purely contained to the character designs I've drawn for the girls.

[heatsu]

it's her again

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 10, day 13

Got the spearhead fully cleaned up, shaded, and slapped on the end of a stick :D And now we're starting on the highlights! I love doing highlights, they're so much fun, I get to be messy with them because we expect light to be all glowy and all over the place XD

[giantkillerjack]

Thank you, younger me, for drawing so many things in which the lines were never quite right. It is quite literally the only reason I ever figured out how to get them right.

[clowningaroundmars]

after such a shitty start to the month things are lookin up for me!!!! yippeee!!!!!! :D

[autistickfigure]

i made this concept the other day. i thought i wouldn't like it overtime, but i still do. it's this lilypad living with a stickfigure who is like david in bfdi. i dont know a name for the stickfigure but i want it to be spanish sounding. i dont know what the stickfigure looks like (and ill probably change the colors for lake (the lilypad) too.) they get along really well BUT a semi colon Thing comes along. the semicolon keeps looking in the area and asking her in the hopes of making an object show. That very much irritates her. and kickstarts the rest of the story (which is much more interesting if i do not tell you here.) THE GIST: she's very irrationally angry. I like her. i'm unsure if i should give her a mouth. i like that it makes her look kinda froggish... But then i would have to animate that as well? Hm..